A steep fare hike that will raise the price of a bus or train ride from $1.50 to $1.75 by fall and cost seniors and the disabled 43 percent more for a monthly pass will go to a vote Thursday.

The 13-member Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority board is facing what some say is one of the toughest decisions in its history — raising fares on 500,000 riders of which 80 percent are minorities and poor — or drowning the agency in a sea of red ink.

Without the fare hike, the MTA (Metro) will realize a $36.8 million operating deficit within two years that will grow into $225 million in 10 years, according to Metro staff. Without more revenue, Metro predicts it will have to cut bus and rail service and lay off staff.

If approved, the fare hike is scheduled to take effect in September. It would be the first fare hike in four years, and the MTA noted senior and student fares have not been raised in seven years. MTA’s $1.50 base rate is the lowest in the nation, lower than San Francisco’s Muni and Chicago’s transit system, which both charge $2 a ride (CTA charges $2.25 for trains).

While the fare hike is needed to keep the agency operating budget afloat, the notion is somewhat counterintuitive to analysts who point out that county taxpayers pay for transportation in three separate measures, the latest passed by voters in 2008 that raised sales tax one-half cent and totals raises more than $1 billion a year.

About $40 billion is expected from Measure R over 30 years but most of it is being set aside for building new subways such as the Expo Line, completed in 2012 to Culver City and next year to Santa Monica; the nine-mile extension of the Purple Line to West Los Angeles; an 11.5-mile extension of the Gold Line from Pasadena to Azusa/Glendora and a $1.2 billion overhaul of the L.A.-to-Long Beach Blue Line.

However, 20 percent was designated in the ballot proposition for bus operations.

The Bus Riders Union, an advocacy group that sued MTA and won a consent decree in federal court that required funneling more money into bus operations, held a rally opposing the hike on Monday in front of Los Angeles City Hall.

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But ever since the consent decree expired in 2006, MTA has cut bus service and focused more on rail lines, said Eric Mann, co-chair of the Bus Riders Union and director of the Labor Community Strategy Center.

“This agency has a $5 billion annual budget. It is literally flush. They have tons of money,” Mann said. “They should be reducing fares and increasing service.”

Pressure from the outspoken group, as well as religious leaders from South L.A. and southeast county cities who called the fare increase a civil rights violation, has reached City Hall.

A motion released earlier this week from L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and fellow MTA board members Supervisors Mark Ridley-Thomas and Zev Yaroslavsky would beef up the MTA’s fare subsidy program for low-income riders. The program provides $10 million in subsidies a year to aid about 6 million riders, according to Metro.

The motion calls for suspending the 2017 and 2020 fare hikes as well as all increases in student bus passes until a special task force can meet and examine those parts of the fare restructuring proposal.

“They have temporarily stopped a rise in student passes but they are socking it to their parents,” Mann said, saying the only motion his group would accept is a no vote on any fare increases.

The board will consider two fare hike options Thursday.

Under Option 1, base fares would reach $1.75 in September, $2 in September 2017 and $2.25 in 2020. A day pass would increase from $5 to $7 in September, $8 in 2017 and $9 in 2020. Monthly passes would jump from $75 to $100, a 33 percent increase, and then would combine with the EZ Pass in 2017 at a higher rate. Senior and disabled monthly passes would increase from $14 to $20 in September, a 43 percent rise. Monthly K-12 student passes under the staff proposal would climb from $24 to $29 and $36 to $43 for college students in September. K-12 student passes would rise to $35 in 2017 and $42 in 2020; college student passes would reach $52 in 2017 and $62 in 2020.

Under Option 2, the fares would increase during peak times such as the morning and evening rush hours to $2.25 in September, $2.75 in 2017 and $3.25 in 2020, but only increase slightly for off-peak rides to $1.75 in 2017 and $2 in 2020. Monthly passes would climb from $75 to $125 in September and would be combined with the EZ Pass used throughout the county in 2017 and 2020 at higher rates. Monthly passes for seniors and the disabled would increase from $14 to $22, then to $25 and then $28. Student and college student passes would increase the same amount as under Option 1.

Under both plans, Metro would allow free transfers for the first 90 minutes of a rider’s trip.

Metro runs buses and the following rail lines: Green Line along the 105 Freeway; Purple Line from downtown L.A. to mid-Wilshire; Expo Line from L.A. to Culver City; Red Line from L.A. to North Hollywood and Gold Line from East L.A. to downtown L.A. to Pasadena. Fares for Metrolink, a commuter rail line, are not included in the Metro fare hike.